A restaurant run by Michelin starred chef Raymond Blanc has been banned from
serving liver after the undercooked dish left two diners with potentially
fatal food poisoning.

Michelin starred chef Raymond BlancPhoto: ANDREW CROWLEY

1:13PM GMT 13 Nov 2012

Two customers at Blanc Brasserie, in Covent Garden, London, were left ill after eating pink lamb’s liver which was not cooked thoroughly enough, a court has been told.

The restaurant has now been banned from serving the dish, after failing to heed a warning from council environmental health officers, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard.

The food had “presented an imminent risk of injury to health because the process of cooking”, the court was told.

Blanc Brasseries will now pay £3,103 in costs and have confirmed they will comply with the order, as a spokeswoman said they were unable to cook the liver to council standards without compromising on taste.

"Brasserie Bar Co has not contested the EHO enforcement and will no longer serve liver in any of its restaurants,” she said.

"In order to serve liver and comply with Westminster Council, it would need to be overcooked to such an extent that our customers just won't eat it."

Liver has now been removed from the menu of all Blanc Brasseries.

Prosecutor Laura Mackinnon told the court two diners had been left with severe diarrhoea and stomach cramps, contracting campylobacter food poisoning after eating the dish separately over the summer.

She said environmental health officer Kate Eastland visited the restaurant, which takes its name from chef Raymond Blanc, on August 9 to investigate following complaints.

There, she found chefs had flouted food protection rules that stipulate that lamb's liver must be cooked at 70 degrees centigrade for at least two minutes, the court heard.

"Because of that a prohibition notice was served that said that specific product was not to be served," she said. "It presented an imminent risk of injury to health because the process of cooking."

The restaurant had already been warned to cook its lamb's liver more thoroughly after the first woman fell ill from eating the undercooked meat on June 22 this year, she added.

Kate Eastland, an environmental health officer from Westminster Council who served the ban, told the court the food poisoning is specifically related to the undercooking of lamb’s liver.

"If you are a vulnerable group such as the elderly or the young or compromised, then it could potentially be life threatening,” she added.

District Judge Michael Snow, who today upheld the prohibition order, said: "There is a great deal of money to be made by selling food but alongside that there must go a great responsibility to ensure that food is kept, cooked and served in a way that doesn't endanger public health.

"It is an area that can threaten people's health and lives. I take a serious view of any failure.

"If I had been asked to punish Blanc Brasseries there is a significant aggravating factor that Ms Eastland's colleague went to Blanc Brasserie on July 3 and warned them about what they were doing and took them the proper advice in the hygiene regulations and that was ignored.

"I am quite satisfied in this case there was an imminent risk to public health.

"I hope that the message goes out to anybody involved in this area that if they fail to comply in their responsibilities and come before me for a criminal type prosecution they must expect a punishment to deter them and deter others."